1993 alleged Turkish military coup

According to some sources, there was a "coup d'état" in 1993 in Turkey, allegedly organised and carried out by elements of the Turkish military through covert means. Although the early 1990s were a period of great violence in Turkey due to the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, 1993 saw a series of suspicious deaths: of President Turgut Özal, leading military figures, and journalists. Particularly in the context of the Ergenekon trials from 2008 onwards and related investigations of the Turkish "deep state" and of suspicious deaths from this period, claims of a "covert coup" intended to prevent a peace settlement (and to protect the covert relationships between the Turkish military, intelligence services including JITEM, Counter-Guerrilla, Kurdish forces including Kurdish Hizbollah, and the Turkish mafia) have been made.

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In the early 1990s, President Turgut Özal agreed to negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the events of the 1991 Gulf War having changed some of the geopolitical dynamics in the region. Apart from Özal, himself half-Kurdish, few Turkish politicians were interested in a peace process, nor was more than a part of the PKK itself.[5] In 1993 Özal was working on the peace plans with former finance minister Adnan Kahveci and General Commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie Eşref Bitlis.[6] Negotiations led to a cease-fire declaration by the PKK on 20 March 1993 - by which time Kahveci and Bitlis were dead.

With the PKK's ceasefire declaration in hand, Özal was planning to propose a major pro-Kurdish reform package at the next meeting of the National Security Council. The president's death on 17 April led to the postponement of that meeting, and the plans were never presented.[7] A month later the May 24, 1993 PKK ambush ensured the end of the peace process. Former PKK commander Şemdin Sakık maintains the attack was part of the Doğu Çalışma Grubu's coup plans.[3] Under the new Presidency of Süleyman Demirel and Premiership of Tansu Çiller, the Castle Plan (to use any and all means to solve the Kurdish question using violence), which Özal had opposed, was enacted, and the peace process abandoned.[8] Further massacres (notably the Sivas massacre and Başbağlar massacre in early July) and assassinations ensured that the peace process was well and truly buried.